Back in the Seventies, if you stopped by Record Revolution on Coventry Road in Cleveland Heights, there's a pretty good chance you might have run into a rock star or two. Everyone from Led Zeppelin, the Who and Lou Reed to Elvis Costello, Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen came by the store when they were in the Cleveland area. There was also a very good chance that you'd find one of the deejays from WMMS radio there, maybe Kid Leo or Billy Bass. Back then, Cleveland was the rock and roll capital of the world, and WMMS was the top FM rock station in the country. And pretty much everyone associated with rock and roll would visit Record Revolution.

Jump ahead some four decades, and Record Revolution is still on Coventry, and it still attracts the occasional musician. Minus the Bear, Gym Class Heroes, Saul Williams and Hank Williams III are among the artists who have stopped by the store in recent months.

And despite the dramatic decline in the sales of pre-recorded music, the store still does well. It no longer carries compact discs, but it does sell a lot of vinyl. Many of the records it sells are used, but it also carries new vinyl releases, primarily reissues of classic albums. During a recent visit, we saw reissues of albums by the Jam, the Cure, Black Flag and the Bad Brains, among many others.

Forty-six years after it opened, Record Revolution is still thriving as one of the oldest independent record stores in the country. As Rob Pryor, the store’s general manager, said, “That’s pretty amazing!”

The store was founded in 1967 by Peter Schliewin, and, back then, Coventry was not just the center of Cleveland’s hippie scene, it was one of the main alternative-lifestyle areas in the entire Midwest.

The store quickly took on an important role in the Cleveland rock and roll scene. WMMS radio, one of the country’s most powerful FM rock stations back then, based much of its programming on Record Revolution’s sales. Rock stars came into the city to play concerts, but they would often make in-store appearances at Record Revolution, autographing records and signing the store’s walls.

Record Revolution no longer carries compact discs, but it does sell a lot of vinyl. Many of the records it sells are used, but it also carries new vinyl releases, primarily reissues of classic albums. James Henke, Special to cleveland.com

In the early Eighties, Schliewin decided to start selling more than just records. He began adding clothing, jewelry, incense and other products to the store’s offerings. But records remained the focus, and, in fact, so strong was Record Revolution’s reputation that, in his 1983 book The Catalog of Cool, rock critic and historian Gene Sculatti called the store “the coolest place to buy records in Ohio.”

Then, in June 1983, Schliewin was killed in a car crash. His wife continued to run the store for a few years, then sold it to Mike Allison. Allison continued to expand the store’s offerings, bringing in more clothing, as well as pipes and other smoking products. Many of the items he brought in could not be found elsewhere in this area. For example, Record Revolution was one of the first stores in the country to sell Doc Martens shoes.

Still, most of the store’s success was based on record sales. However, in the last decade, with the increase in digital downloads, pre-recorded music sales have steadily declined, and in 2007, the store had to downsize.

Up to that point, Record Revolution took up three storefronts on Coventry. It now is one-third the size, filling just one storefront.

Though the store continues to offer clothing, incense, pipes and other products, records still account for about 75 percent of its sales.

“Vinyl has overtaken CDs as a tangible medium,” Pryor said. When compact discs were first introduced back in 1982, pretty much everyone thought it would cause the death of vinyl records. But, in fact, the reverse is true. Now, more than two decades later, CD sales have declined by more than 50 percent since 2000, while sales of vinyl records continue to grow.

Record Revolution continues to offer clothing, incense, pipes and other products, records still account for about 75 percent of its sales. James Henke, Special to cleveland.com

Both Pryor and Allison believe the store has a strong future and will be around for a long time to come. Though much has changed in the four and a half decades since the store opened, they think it still fits into the Coventry landscape. “We’re not just here to sell a bunch of stuff,” Pryor said. “We’re here to provide a service and a place for a community of free thinkers. We’re here to be an anchor for a counter-cultural society.”

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